Seattle: Protests over civil rights abuses in Ethiopia: The protesters, many of them members of the East African community — want Washington senators to pressure Ethiopian leaders or cut U.S. aid in the wake of the ongoing mass killings that they say are targeting ethnic Oromos in Ethiopia. #OromoProtests December 30, 2015

Members of the East African community in Seattle planned a huge rally with regard to the “ongoing mass killings targeting ethnic Oromos in Ethiopia.”

“The Ethiopian regime is the largest U.S aid recipient in Africa and the protestors will be heading to the Federal Building to demand both Senators pressure the Ethiopian regime or cut the US aid to the dictatorial regime,” a news release said.

“We, members of the Oromo community in Seattle and Metropolitan area, refugees and immigrants alike, arise in protest because we believe American aid is financing human and environmental atrocities directed against the Oromo people by the current Ethiopian regime,” a letter they wrote says in part.

About the killings in Ethiopia

An Ethiopian opposition party charged Wednesday that Ethiopian government forces have killed more than 80 people in the past four weeks in protests in the country’s Oromia region, according to The Associated Press.

Violent clashes between protesters and security forces have spread across Ethiopia’s Oromia Region, the biggest and most populous of Ethiopia’s federal states. Oromo students have led protests against the government’s plan which they charge will take lands from their region and displace thousands of farmers.

The government charges that the protesters are working with “terrorists.” It claims that only five protesters have been killed and that the development plan for the capital city, Addis Ababa, will not deprive farmers of land. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, speaking on Ethiopian state television, warned that the government “will take merciless legitimate action against any force bent on destabilizing the area.”

Protest had minimal traffic impacts

The Seattle Department of Transportation reported shortly after 11 a.m. that the demonstration started at 14th Avenue and Jackson Street near the Central District.

The demonstration went through Pioneer Square around noon, and it ended after the march to the Federal Building.